Frustration, Annoyance and Exceptions
by lovablegeek
Summary: The things Dan and Casey do to drive each other crazy, and the one person who can drive them even crazier. DanCasey [One shot]


"How many times are you gonna rewrite the tease?" Casey asks, hanging over Dan's shoulder to look at his notepad. Crumpled pages litters the floor around the trash can.

"Until I get it right," Dan answers, holding his pen more as if he means to stab the paper than write anything.

"It wasn't right the first four or ten times?"

"No."

Casey flops onto the couch, still eying Dan. "Anything I can do to help?"

"No."

"...Okay then." Casey grabs the paper and makes a careful show of paying absolutely no mind to Dan, making sure to be obviously available whenever he finally asks for help.

* * *

It drives Danny up the wall how Casey still gets defensive whenever someone from the network is in the studio. It's not that Dan _doesn't_, but he at least gives them a chance - with Casey, if they're network people as opposed to _Sports Night _people, they're The Enemy. Although in the case of Calvin Trager, Danny suspects it's less that he doesn't trust him with the show, and more than he doesn't trust his intentions with _Dana_.

He's not sure if that bothers him more than the hostility in general.

"Casey?"

"Yeah?"

"You're glaring."

"I am not."

"You're looking at the guy like you want to set him on fire!"

"I am _not_!"

There's a long silence, broken only by the sound of Casey's typing. Dan's fairly sure he's not actually typing anything - Casey can't type without looking, and he's still glaring at Calvin through the window.

"Casey?"

"Yeah?"

"You're an ass."

* * *

Dan has this habit of needing to need someone, and Casey can't stand it. He can't stand _watching_ it time after time - with Rebecca, and then with Abby, and now with his girlfriend whose name Casey has made a point of not remembering. And to Casey, it just seems stupid, because everyone that Danny _thinks_ he needs eventually goes away. It's stupid, because then Danny ends up heartbroken and usually drunk, spending the night on Casey's couch because it's safe and familiar.

It's stupid, because all this time there's been someone waiting right in front of his face. Just... waiting.

* * *

Dan doesn't know why he feels the need to watch Casey prowling around the studio, hunting for his damn cheese. It's not like this scene doesn't repeat itself once a month.

"Casey, for the last time, there's no provolone, and I'm not sure why you think that if there were, it'd be in Dana's office."

"I think for all the hard work I put into the show, the least they could do is listen when I ask for provolone."

"You know, craft service has every other kind of cheese under the sun..."

"So why's it so hard to get the kind I want?"

"Has it ever occurred to you they might be doing it intentionally?"

"Why would that be?"

"I don't know, because it's funny?"

* * *

"You remember when we used to wander around here in the middle of the night?" Dan asks, hands shoved in his pockets against the cold.

Casey raises his eyebrows and glances over at Danny, unsure why he'd agreed to wander around the East Village on their one night off, except that Danny had gone on and on about how Casey hadn't had a real New York experience in years, until finally Casey'd given in.

"Yeah, I remember."

"For the life of me, I can't remember why."

"Because we were stupid?"

"Yeah, maybe. It's changed since then..."

"Everything's changed since then."

Dan's dragging him out in the cold to wander around the city, so he could wax rhapsodic about it... it ought to bother him. Casey has to admit, though, to himself at least, that he loves it.

* * *

"Hey, Casey, we're celebrating Passover again in the studio this year. You wanna... you know, sit in? I promise I won't make you do anything embarrassing - there's not even a script this time."

Casey fidgets, gives him a quick glance, and turns back to his computer screen. "Uh... I gotta do a thing, I don't think I'll be available..." he mutters. Dan shrugs and looks down.

"Great. Whatever. Doesn't matter, I just thought I'd ask..." He goes back to writing, and tries not to let it show that it bothers him Casey would dismiss him with as pathetic an excuse as "a thing".

* * *

As much as Dan and Casey drive each other crazy, one person has the ability to drive them both even crazier.

"You broke up with Ashley."

"Yes, I did," Dan says patiently, trying to ignore Natalie. He keeps hoping that if he looks like he has a job to do, she'll leave him alone. It's none too convincing when he's been staring at his notebook for the past five minutes.

"Why did you break up with her?"

"Because it wasn't working out?"

"I don't think that's why."

"And why do_ you _think I broke up with her?"

"I think it's because you're secretly in love with Casey."


End file.
